Motor fluctuations complicate the treatment of patients with Parkinson's disease receiving levodopa. Extended-release carbidopa-levodopa has a pharmacokinetic profile that provides a more continuous levodopa serum concentration. Patients taking this formulation can expect longer duration of action and fewer doses per day, similar clinical improvement when compared to other levodopa formulations...

the aim of most pharmacotherapy for Parkinson’s disease (PD). The theoretical background to CDS is that the physiological striatal dopaminergic stimulation is constant and that oral therapy with levodopa in PD can replace dopaminergic stimulation only in an intermittent, non-physiological manner.1,2 This pulsatile stimulation of the dopamine receptors is thought to contribute to the development...

Fifteen of 23 pathologically confirmed cases of multiple system atrophy (MSA) showed some initial response to levodopa and eight of these remained at least partially responsive at the time of death. Eleven developed motor oscillations, and drug-induced dyskinesias, often involving the face and jaw, were also seen in 11 cases. Acute levodopa and apomorphine challenges were administered to 11 pat...

Smith, Jill L., Jeong-Sun Ju, Bithika M. Saha, Brad A. Racette, and Jonathan S. Fisher. Levodopa with carbidopa diminishes glycogen concentration, glycogen synthase activity, and insulin-stimulated glucose transport in rat skeletal muscle. J Appl Physiol 97: 2339–2346, 2004; doi:10.1152/japplphysiol.01219.2003.—We hypothesized that levodopa with carbidopa, a common therapy for patients with Par...

Dopaminergic signalling in the striatum contributes to reinforcement of actions and motivational enhancement of motor vigour. Parkinson's disease leads to progressive dopaminergic denervation of the striatum, impairing the function of cortico-basal ganglia networks. While levodopa therapy alleviates basal ganglia dysfunction in Parkinson's disease, it often elicits involuntary movements, referr...

BACKGROUND Recent studies have shown that expression of G protein-coupled receptor kinase 6 (GRK6) and β-arrestin1 in the striatum is closely associated with hyperactive dopamine receptors in rats with levodopa-induced dyskinesia (LID). Our research group has shown that Tianqi antitremor granules have a significant effect on the motor complications of Parkinson's disease (PD). However, whether ...

Dopaminergic signalling in the striatum contributes to reinforcement of actions and motivational enhancement of motor vigour. Parkinson’s disease leads to progressive dopaminergic denervation of the striatum, impairing the function of cortico-basal ganglia networks. While levodopa therapy alleviates basal ganglia dysfunction in Parkinson’s disease, it often elicits involuntary movements, referr...

BACKGROUND Modulation of neurogenesis that acts as an endogenous repair mechanism would have a significant impact on future therapeutic strategies for Parkinson's disease (PD). Several studies demonstrated dopaminergic modulation of neurogenesis in the subventricular zone (SVZ) of the adult brain. Levodopa, the gold standard therapy for PD, causes an increase in homocysteine levels that induces...

Objective: One patient received oral levodopa during a study aiming for better understanding of the basal ganglia and of the mechanisms of deep brain stimulation of the subthalamic nucleus (STN DBS) with and without intravenous (IV) levodopa infusion in patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD). The results from oral and IV levodopa treatment are presented. Methods: Five patients with advanced PD ...

Dopaminergic signalling in the striatum contributes to reinforcement of actions and motivational enhancement of motor vigour. Parkinson’s disease leads to progressive dopaminergic denervation of the striatum, impairing the function of cortico-basal ganglia networks. While levodopa therapy alleviates basal ganglia dysfunction in Parkinson’s disease, it often elicits involuntary movements, referr...